This invention relates to mobile fluid delivery systems in general. More particularly, this invention relates to vehicle-mounted fluid delivery systems for selectively delivering to a delivery area surrounding an object adjacent the vehicle path while the vehicle is in motion.
Mobile fluid delivery systems are used in a wide variety of applications, including weed abatement and control, fertilizer application for agricultural and landscaping purposes, mobile spray paint applications, and the like. In all such systems, a fluid delivery system, including one or more fluid ejectors, is mounted on appropriate portions of a vehicle to deliver the fluid in a desired pattern. For example, in weed control applications, a series of spray nozzles is typically mounted transversely to the rear of the vehicle on a fixed or movable arm extending from one or both sides of the vehicle. An appropriate herbicide can thus be sprayed outwardly from the side of the vehicle in a pattern extending generally perpendicular to the path of the vehicle. In the past, fluid delivery systems have typically been arranged for manual operation by the driver of the vehicle or an occupant of the vehicle. More recently, systems have been introduced (for weed control applications) in which automatic operation of the fluid delivery system is made possible by the use of a foliage sensing unit which generates a control signal to indicate the presence of a weed to be sprayed with an herbicide.
Conventional mobile fluid delivery systems are functionally and structurally limited by the operational reality of roadside obstacles, such as trees, telephone poles, boulders and the like. For example, for railroad weed control systems, care must be taken to ensure that any portion of the fluid delivery system which extends laterally of the rail truck be limited in length to avoid striking obstacles encountered along the side of the rail bed. This limits the lateral extent to which a weed control herbicide can be applied.
For non-rail vehicles, such as herbicide spraying trucks and fertilizer trucks, the vehicle must be operated in such a manner as to maneuver around obstacles such as trees, telephone poles, boulders and the like. Conventional sprayers can be manually operated to spray around obstacles. Such manual operation, however, requires a spray head mounted near the edge of the vehicle, capable of spraying outwardly for several feet. Moreover, such spraying cannot be used in conjunction with a foliage sensing unit, and the spray would not adequately cover all sides of an obstacle. As a consequence, the efficiency with which such mobile fluid delivery systems can be operated is severely impaired, both with respect to the time required to complete a given fluid delivery project and the monetary cost of doing so.